26 THE MODERN MISSISSIPPI PROBLEM 



normalities, with means rather than extremes ; and their mas- 

 terly treatise remains the guide of students throughout the world. 

 The principles developed by them were subsequently discussed 

 and applied by an important federal commission; while the 

 problem of maintaining an open passage from the river to the 

 gulf for vessels of deep draft was solved experimentally by Eads 

 in a manner eminently satisfactory to long-distance commerce. 

 As the vast and fertile bottom-lands attracted the planter they 

 were gradually reclaimed, the plantations extending quite to the 

 river banks ;' and to meet local and temporary needs (at least in 

 part in every case) - the natural levees built by the river were 

 raised artificially to protect plantations and towns. These levees 

 interfered with the natural regimen of the stream in some 

 measure ; they, checked the annual flooding of the bottoms, such 

 as has enriched the valle}^ of the Nile, and at the same time pre- 

 vented the river from shifting to the lower grounds as its bed 

 was built above the level of stability ; in short, they initiated 

 the transformation of the waterway from a natural river to an 

 artificial canal. A direct and evident consequence of the change 

 was to render the floods more disastrous when the stream burst 

 its partly artificial barriers, and this led to a demand for build- 

 ing the levees higher and higher and extending them further and 

 further along its banks ; it also led to recognition of the impor- 

 tance of floods as agencies affecting the material development of 

 an extensive and rich section of the country. So the burning 

 problem of the Mississippi today is not that of navigation, not 

 even that of normal regimen as a great river, but that of the floods 

 to which the stream is subject. 



Accordingly certain recent researches of the Weather Bureau 

 are most apposite and timety.* The report in which they are 

 made public is a straightforward and largely statistical presenta- 

 tion of the facts pertaining to the floods of the Mississippi, espe- 

 cially the notable flood of 1897. The material is arranged in four 

 sections. The first relates to " The River and Basin," and sets 

 forth the physical characteristics of the entire watershed as 

 ascertained from various sources. The second section treats of 

 *' Normal Precipitation and Drainage " throughout the basin as 

 determined from the records of the Weather Bureau, which com- 

 prise practically all the meteorologic observations extant. Then 



♦Floods of the Mississippi River. Prepared under direction of Willis L. Moore, Chief 

 of Weather Bureau. By Park Morrill, Forecast Official in Charge of River and Flood 

 Service (U. S. Department of Agriculture, Weather Bureau. Bulletin E). Washington, 

 1807. 4°, pp. i-vi 4- 1-79, pis. (i, ii unnumbered +) 1-58. 



